This invention relates to a carton which when shipped from the manufacturer to its ultimate destination, is in a folded arrangement such that the box or containment vessel is folded so that it may be entirely embraced within the “lid” of the ultimate package. Such boxes are convenient for use as “gift” boxes.
Many “folded cartons” are available in present day commercial establishments. Most folded boxes are shipped in their folded condition and displayed in the folded condition, making it difficult for the consumer to gauge the ultimate size and capacity of the box. Since the dimensions of the box appear on the “knocked down” box it often requires that a consumer have a ruler or tape measure handy to determine the capacity of the assembled carton.
The entire carton will be contained in a transparent or semi-transparent wrap so that the customer may easily determine the size, shape and color of the unassembled gift carton through the transparent wrap. Because the carton itself is stored within the confines of the lid, the informed customer may easily determine (from the size of the lid enclosing the folded carton) the dimensions of the unassembled carton. The customer has merely to hold the gift carton (in its folded condition) up to the article which is to be ultimately housed within the gift carton to gauge whether the folded gift carton will have sufficient capacity to contain the article once the folded box is assembled.
Many prior art gift cartons are manufactured and shipped in their final assembled condition. These prior art gift cartons are usually manufactured from rigid board with the lid in place on the carton. Usually the complete gift box is enclosed in a shrink-wrap plastic enclosure. Additional paraphernalia, such as ribbons, gift tags, decorative stickers, etc. are placed inside the box before the shrink-wrap is applied to the gift carton. The advantage of presenting the ultimate customer with a completely erected rigid gift carton (in a shrink wrap) is that the customer may determine immediately upon seeing the gift carton in its erected form is that it is easy to determine whether the intended gift will fit into the assembled gift carton. The disadvantage is that the shipping and packaging costs associated with the assembled carton can drive the ultimate selling price of the pre-assembled carton out of the range of most consumers.
Thus this type of gift carton will be available only in upscale gift shops where price is not a prime consideration.